Midlands based football teams to take part in weekend charity soccer tournament to raise funds for Gweru School

Premier Soccer League sides Chapungu FC and TelOne FC will this weekend be part of a 6 team pre-season charity tournament set for Mkoba Stadium on Saturday in Gweru to assist in raising funds for the construction of a classroom block for a local school, Airforce Thornhill Secondary School

Former PSL side Shabanie Mine FC based in Zvishavane, which is now plying its trade in Division One, will be participating alongside Real Big Valley Masters (Real BVM) and Sheasham FC, who are also in the same division.The sixth team will be Division two side, ZRP FC, which may seem to be underdogs but have the mantle to upset any top flight league side in such tournaments.

Real BVM and Sheasham FC will be banking on home ground advantage in upsetting the two Premier League sides, Waru Waru and the Wifi Boys if they progress to the semi final, as Mkoba Stadium is their training ground.

The tournament is part of efforts by Airforce Thornhill Secondary School to raise funds for the construction of a RTGS$70 000 classroom block by year end at the school.

Speaking during the charity tournament draw held in Gweru on Monday, Chapungu Public Relations Officer Tawanda Zowa who is part of the tournament’s organising committee, said the tournament will be a one day event which will see all proceeds channelled to the school, while the winner will walk away with a floating trophy. “The tournament is on this coming Saturday on the 9th of March and initially four teams had indicated that they were going to participate but as we progressed, two more teams came on board to assist in the cause and now we have six teams,” Zowa said. “This fundraising is for the construction of a Lower and Upper Six classroom block because the current buildings which are there cannot accommodate up to form six, so we want to raise money to construct that block,” he said.Next year the school is looking to introduce its first Lower Six pupils and later Upper Six in 2021.

In a letter to well-wishers interested in donating towards the construction of the block and the tournament, Chairman of the school’s Fundraising Committee Mr Cletous Ngoma said “like any other new project, the school is still facing some problems in terms of financing its projects. The school is not receiving any funding from the central fiscus and enrolment levels are still very low.” he added

The tournament will start at around 08:30hrs with Premier Soccer League sides Chapungu and TelOne having been given automatic qualification into the semi-finals while the other four teams are set to play in a qualifier stage to select two winners who will face the two PSL sides.In the first game of the day Sheasham FC will face ZRP FC before Real BVM clash with Shabanie Mine FC in the second game of the day.On the first semi-final the seeded team TelOne will face winners between Sheasham and ZRP while the second semi-finals will pit seeded side Chapungu and winners between Real BVM and Shabanie Mine. For the players, three awards are up for grabs which include player of the tournament, top goal scorer and goal keeper of the tournament.

Airforce Thornhill Secondary was founded in January 2016 and started with only form 1 pupils and now accommodates up to form 4 with an enrolment average of about 250 pupils and a complement of 8 teachers.So far besides learning classroom blocks, the school has managed to construct two laboratories one for Physics and the other for Chemistry and Biology